The process of transferring rights of a Life Insurance Policy is called Assignment. There are 2 types of Assignment.
- Absolute Assignment
- Conditional Assignment
Absolute Assignment means complete Transfer of Rights. The person who transfers the rights is called the Assignor and the person to whom the rights are being transferred is called the Assignee.
Hence Absolute Assignment means completely transferring whole and sole rights of the policy from the Assignor to the Assignee without any further terms and conditions applicable.
The process of assignment is complete only when the original Policy Document has been endorsed or a fresh Policy Document has been issued in favour of the Assignee.
Let’s take an example:
Rahul owns a Life Insurance policy of value Rs 5 lakhs. He would like to gift it to his best friend Ajay.
Thus, in that case, he would like to perform Absolute Assignment of the policy in Ajay’s name such that the death or maturity proceeds are directly paid to him. Rahul’s family members or nominee does not have any right on the policy money.
After the assignment is executed, Ajay becomes the absolute owner of the policy. If he wishes, he may again transfer it to someone else for any other reason. This type of Assignment without any further clauses attached to it is called Absolute Assignment.
Example in real life of Absolute Assignment happens in case of an Insurance Policy being taken by the employer as a perquisite for the employee. Once the policy is purchased, it is transferred to the employee’s name under Absolute Assignment clause. Hence the employee becomes the owner of the policy, but the employer pays for it till the end. Thus, instead of paying the employee cash, they purchase an insurance policy in their name and add it to their Annual Income Package.
